The Chinese Language Choir of Burggymnasium in Germany

Burggymnasium is one of 12 public high schools established in the German-speaking European region. The school opened a Chinese elective class in 1994 and a high school course with credit in 2008. It is the only school in Essen that offers Chinese language classes and a Chinese high school graduation examination. Today, almost half of the more than 200 high school students in Burggymnasium have taken Chinese as an elective.

The Chinese Choir of Burggymnasium was founded with the enlightenment from Professor Peng Liyuan. During her visit to the school in 2014, some student asked her how to improve the pronunciation of Chinese, and she recommended singing more Chinese songs. Encouraged by Professor Peng Liyuan, the school soon established the first high school Chinese choir in Germany. The students from the choir go to school for rehearsal every Saturday. Their hard work and effort came to fruition. As a result, they have successfully carried out many performances in the past few years and appeared on important diplomatic occasions between China and Germany.

In October 2016, Professor Peng Liyuan met with teacher and student representatives from Burggymansium at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse (DSG) and enjoyed the performance of the Chinese language choir. The professor said that the students' singing reminded her of her visit to Burggymnasium in 2014. Over the past two years, the students had not only managed to speak more fluent Chinese, but also sung better Chinese songs. She hoped that the students would continue to study Chinese and the Chinese culture, learn more about China, and become messengers to promote the national friendship between China and Germany in the future.

Professor Peng Liyuan highly appreciated the unremitting efforts made by Burggymnasium to train Chinese language talents, spread Chinese culture and promote cross-cultural exchanges, and expressed her belief that through the concerted efforts of the teachers and students, the flower of Sino-German friendship will blossom more exuberantly.

The principal and representatives of teachers and students from Burggymnasium said that Professor Peng Liyuan's visit to Burggymnasium in 2014 and her communication with the students were a great honor to them and had stimulated the students' interest in learning more about China and studying Chinese culture. This time, they visited China in an exciting tour of learning, travelled through the magnificent natural and cultural landscapes of the country, met with new Chinese friends, and experienced the profundity of Chinese history and culture and felt the hospitality of the Chinese people. The students would be more committed to learning Chinese in order to contribute to a stronger German-Chinese friendship in the future.

The teaching of Chinese has now become the highlight of Burggymnasium and it has even attracted some interested students from the other schools. The Chinese choir complements and facilitates the teaching of the Chinese language in terms of music and culture. Before learning a new song, the choir teachers translate the lyrics into Pinyin and German and explain the background information and Chinese knowledge of the song, so that the students can better understand and interpret the song when they sing. Now the choir's two local volunteer teachers are both choral conductors and singing experts who have graduated from famous conservatories in China, and every week the choir prepares extensive voice training for the students. Through unremitting exploration and practice, the Chinese choir's singing level has been constantly improved, and the students' pronunciation of Chinese has also improved rapidly in their singing.